Jan 20, 2015

Ashraf Ghani, finally announced his cabinet almost four months after taking office. When he swore in as a president Afghanistan last year, he vehemently vowed to root out widespread corruption – which had paralyzed his precursor, Hamid Karzai – and he would designate his ministers based on their qualifications, and not their ethnic and religious connections. However, Ghani with his ambitious plans appears to have succumbed to the same fate with which his predecessor desperately and defenselessly had grappled. After it emerged that one of his nominees, Mohammad Yaqob Haidari, for agriculture minister is on Interpol’s most-wanted list, Ghani’s government was forced to omit his name from list. On January 18, another Ghani’s nominee for finance minister withdrew for unknown reason. As bad as it looks now, Ghani and his unity government with Abdullah Abdullah will suffer from some more serious setbacks. News on Afghan websites purportedly reveals that Ghani’s nominees have fake university degrees, fake IDs and criminal background.

Ghani might have cherry-picked a few of his nominees, but like his predecessor’s cabinet, which was highly ethnically selected, most of the current nominees are representing ethnic groups. Hazara, the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, has three nominees and one of them is Barna Karimi who is nominated for Telecommunication and Information Technology Minister. He is the former Afghan ambassador to Canada, and to this post, a powerful Hazara politician Mohammad Mohaqiq nominates him.

To look objectively to some of these claims against Barna Karimi, there is a dozen of crude truth. Mr. Karimi’s bio says that he was born in 1974, finished his high school in 1991 and studied one year at Kabul medical school until 1992. Then he left Afghanistan in 1994, and arrived in California the same year. To make a thorough evaluation of his claims, lets make some logical reasoning. Lets assume that Barna was born in 1974, and finished his high school in 1991, and studied one year at Kabul medical school, he then left school in 1992. If this is true, Barna must have been 18 years old in 1992. Lets assume that Barna went to school in 1981, at age 7. If he continued his school throughout 1980s to 1991, he must have been at 10th grade when the civil war broke out. Therefore, based on this calculation, it appears that Barna Karimi has never finished his school, let alone university.

His claim that he went to Kabul medical school until 1992 is not true either. Barna also fails to make a calculated and intelligible story about dates. His statement that he attended Kabul medical school from 1991 to 1992 is erroneous in light of his claims. The Najibullah’s government collapsed in April 15, 1992, which is just the end of wintertime in Afghanistan. Since schools are closed in winter, this claim is inconsistent with the previously stated facts.

The abundance of so much inconsistencies and contradictions that pertain to his educational records may have serious consequences for his professional life once and for all. It may not be fair to call Barna a pathological liar, however, there are some subtle characteristics in his behavior that make him a good candidate for such title. In an interview with the Guardian dates back to October 2008, Barna Karimi has said that after spending 17 years in California, he finally returned to his country in June 2005 (according to this website he returned to Afghanistan in 2004) to take up the position of deputy chief of staff for President Hamid Karzai. If his claim is true, Barna must have lived in California since 1988 – which is not true because he apparently went to the US as a refugee in 1994.

Such contradictions have disappointed many Afghans on social media websites who lament the fact that their votes are wasted and Ghani’s unity government becomes a joke to have uneducated individuals mounted in his cabinet. Afghans on social media websites and in a number of news websites have said that Barna Karimi has never attended college. According to Mr. Karimi’s bio published on Afghanistan's Embassy in Ottawa, he studied at the University of Phoenix from 1997 to 2003 where he eventually received his bachelor's in business marketing and master's in business administration. The University of Phoenix offers only online degrees. A number of contacts that have been made with the University of Phoenix to find out whether Barna has received degrees from this school or not, the answers were negative. The question thus remains: Where did Barna forge his fake degrees?(After it was revealed that his higher educational degrees are fake, he then claimed in the parliament to have studied in Russia. Barna have probably been under the influence of amnesia, a symptom that is fairly common among Afghan politicians).

Mr. Karimi must be preparing now to able to justify all these contradictions when he faces the Afghanistan’s Members of Parliaments this Wednesday for confirmation vote. One of these issues will perhaps be his two different dates of birth. On his Afghan ID, Mr. Karimi was born on October 13, 1974, but his birthday in the United States, according to this traffic accident record from a criminal searching background website, is June 13, 1973. There are numerous website that show the same result about his birthday.

According to Afghan Civil Journalism website, Barna also has a criminal record in the United States. The website purports that Barna has spent one year in prison because of abusing his ex-wife. The author claims that Barna has not yet been able to see his daughter who lives with her mother because the court has banned him from seeing his ex-wife. This also has prevented him from getting his U.S. citizenship, according to author.

If the Afghan MPs show some easy manners and magnanimity, Barna Karimi may become the minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology. Such leniency is possible and it would open the door to look at some of his dazzling achievements. Among many impressive jobs he have taken up for a very short time is his high rank diplomatic position as an Afghan Ambassador to Canada. It is important to remember that Barna started his professional life from nothing. He spent several years of his life in San Diego, California at his rug store. But, it should not impede him from becoming a minister. According to some of his friends who know him well, Barna is a smart person who enjoys reading poetry, socializes with literary figures and appreciates professionalism; especially when his mates appear in professional attire not Shalwar Kameez when meet him. Finally, such social and political etiquette reflects the high standard of Barna’s professionalism and technicality of profession and career path that Ghani’s government is in desperate need. Though replacing Shalwar Kameez with modern dress in current Afghanistan seems far-fetched, evoking the nostalgia of Amanullah Khan’s period of reform adopting western dress code, which was inspired by Ataturk of Turkey, is not a bad idea.

Finally, if the Afghan Parliament seriously looks for evidences, it should ask Barna to provide higher education documents. Precisely, the MPs should ask him to present four-year undergraduate transcript and two-year graduate transcript. They should also ask Barna to provide his transcript from high school in Kabul to make sure whether he has finished his high school.